daughter mother power imbalance

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TRADITIONAL POWER-CONTROL THEORY

Power-control theory explains the gender gap in nonserious delinquency by assessing parents' differential levels of authority in the workplace. Positions of power and authority at work are believed to correspond to positions of power and authority within the family. Families in which the fathers' occupational and corresponding familial authority exceeds that of the mothers are "unbalanced." This includes families with mothers who work outside the home. Child socialization in unbalanced families generally is delegated to mothers.

Daughters are the primary objects of mothers' instrumental and relational control in unbalanced families because it is assumed that daughters, Re their mothers, are destined for adult roles lacking relative power. Sons, who are expected to reproduce their fathers' positions in the occupational sector, are allowed greater freedom by their mothers, and consequently they are more likely than daughters to take risks. Although risk taking may be expressed in nondelinquent activities, Hagan and colleagues "assume that a taste for risks among youths translates in delinquent conduct" (Singer & Levine, 1988, p. 628, note omitted). In summary, sons' and daughters' different attitudes toward risk are manifest in their disparate involvement in common delinquency, with sons involved in offending to a greater extent than daughters.